1171- Saladin, the Vezir of Egypt, changed the religious practice of Egypt from Shiite back to Sunni Moslem. For this act, the Caliph in Baghdad made the Kurd a Sultan, and he took up the war begun by Nur-Al-Din against the Christian Crusaders in Jerusalem.

1224-The first Franciscan monks land in England. The are promptly arrested and sent to London in chains.

1608- Captain John Smith elected leader of the Jamestown Colony. This advances the common adventurer over the heads of several gentlemen like President Wingfield and Captain’s Martin and Newport. But since they first landed in April the rigors of the Virginia wilderness proved that Smith knew best how to run the colony.

1646- The Parliamentary forces capture King Charles' last major fortress, the seaport of Bristol, which in effect wins the English Civil War.

1813- Commodore Oliver Perry defeats a British naval flotilla on Lake Erie. This battle and New Orleans prevented the War of 1812 from being a complete botchup by the U.S. considering we had our capitol burned and all our invasions of Canada defeated. Perry's victory message:" We have met the enemy, and he is ours."

1846- Elias Howe patented the sewing machine.

1926- The remains of screen idol Rudolph Valentino arrived in Hollywood after a mammoth funeral in New York where he had died two weeks before. Hollywood, knowing a publicity coup when it saw one, immediately staged a second spectacular funeral.

1931-THE FIVE FAMILIES - the New York underworld was controlled by two bosses, Joey the Boss Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. They were the last of the "Mustache Petes"- old style Sicilian immigrants more European than American. Masseria had claimed he would kill anyone that came from Maranzano’s hometown Castellomare del Golfo in Sicily, so this period of gang violence was called the Castellamarese War. That April Boss Masseria was assassinated by his own lieutenant Lucky Lucciano. When Lucky felt Maranzano was preparing to hit him he struck first. Today Jewish gangsters Bugsy Seigel, Meyer Lansky and Lepke Buchalter posing as police officers entered Maranzano’s office and filled him with bullets and knife wounds. Lucciano used Jewish hitmen because Sicilians would worry about revenge attacks on their families back in the Old Country. Lucky Lucciano then made a peace with Maranzano’s successor Joseph " Joe Bananas" Bonano and established the Commission of the Five Families. Now even though they were an all-American group Lucciano and the other dons organized the mob around the Unione Siciliano into a more homogeneously Italian organization- La Cosa Nostra. Lucky Lucciano also pioneered the mob evolving a more low profile big-business corporate style, the first true crime syndicate.

1940- During the Battle of Britain, Nazi bombs hit Buckingham Palace, just missing the Royal Family. The Queen later Queen-Mum said:"At last now I can look the East-enders in the face." RAF ace Sgt. Ginger Lacey volunteered to go up and get the bomber who did the bombing. In a London fog his Hurricane fighter caught up to the offending German Heinkell –111 bomber and shot it down., But his own plane was so shot up in the battle he had to bail out. His parachute caught in a tree and as Sgt, Lacey looked down he saw an old Englishman in a Home Guard helmet training a shotgun at him. He obviously thought he was a German. Lacey explained he wasn’t a Jerry but the old duffer remained unconvinced. He was preparing to fire, when Sgt. Lacey let loose a torrent of Anglo-Saxon invective "YOU STUPID GIT, YOU G*DDAM F**KING OLD WANKER! WAIT TILL I GET MY BLOODY ID CARD OUT, etc. The Old man then lowered his weapon with relief:" "Ere. He said:" Anyone who can swear like that can’t be a German.."

1946- On a train in India outside Darjeeling, a Yugoslavian nun had a vision of Jesus commanding her to found a mission for the poor. Mother Theresa found her calling, and began her famous hospital in the slums of Calcutta.

1953 - Swanson Foods sells it's first "TV dinner"

1955- the TV series 'Gunsmoke' premiered.

1963- The First New York Film Festival opened with Luis Bunuel’s The Exterminating Angel, and Woody Allen was probably there.

1966- H& B's Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossible's debut.

1968- Hanna Barbera's Space Ghost and Dino Boy' debut.

1972- Premiere of the landmark TV special Liza with a Z. Bob Fosse directed and choreographed the one woman show of the spangled 23 year old.

1977- The last execution in France by guillotine. Hamidas Djandoubi a Tunisian immigrant and convicted murderer.

1978- The Communist Premier of Bulgaria, Tobor Zhivkov, asked the Soviet KGB to do something about dissident Georgyi Markov who was making embarrassing broadcasts to Bulgaria on London's Radio Free Europe. After a broadcast Markov left the BBC offices and strolled across Waterloo Bridge. A man bumped into him and poked him in the shin with his umbrella tip. He excused himself and moved on. Markov grew sick and died within 24 hours on this day. A tiny pellet smaller than a pinhead carrying poison was injected into Markov by a hypodermic needle concealed in the umbrella tip.

1981- Picasso's painting Guernica is at last returned to Spain.

1993- The TV series The X Files premiered. The truth is out there.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Could General Custer sing?

Answer: According to Evan Connell’s Pulitizer Prize winning book Son of the Morning Star and Utley’s Crazy Horse & Custer, George Armstrong Custer had a good voice and loved after dinner to lead a sing-a-long with his officers of popular tunes of the day. 7th Cavalry Kareoke.